North Korea may have earned up to $5.5 billion from arms deals with Russia. Also, the DPRK can receive up to $572 million annually as a result of the deployment of its troops in Russia. This was reported by The New York Times, according to UNN.
Details
According to the newspaper, in exchange for troops and weapons, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un receives food, oil, cash, and modern weapons systems worth billions of dollars from Russia. According to the newspaper, this is likely to allow his regime to withstand international sanctions and modernize its armed forces.
In June, Kim Jong-un and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin signed a treaty on mutual defense and cooperation in Pyongyang. After that, North Korea began sending troops to Russia. Currently, there are about 11,000 of them there. In addition, North Korea has provided Russia with 20,000 shipping containers of weapons. In particular, we are talking about millions of artillery shells, newly developed ballistic missiles, multiple launch rocket systems, and long-range howitzers.
According to the estimates of Elena Huseynova, a researcher at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, North Korea has earned up to $5.5 billion from arms deals with Russia. Also, the DPRK can receive up to $572 million annually as a result of the deployment of troops. At the same time, the country's official exports amounted to $330 million last year alone.
However, neither Russia nor North Korea has disclosed how Moscow paid the DPRK.
But North Korean oil tankers are bringing in far more oil from Russia than is allowed under UN sanctions, according to an analysis of satellite imagery published last month by the UK's Open Source Center and the BBC.
On the ground, the North Korean military is also gaining valuable battlefield intelligence for the first time in decades, including innovations in the use of drones that are changing modern warfare. The war against Ukraine provides North Korea with its first opportunity to test its latest KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles against Western air defense systems in real combat. According to South Korean officials, their technicians traveled with the missiles to identify flaws and collect data that they will take home.
Recall
The foreign ministers of 10 countries and the EU condemned military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia, including the deployment of North Korean troops. The countries called on Pyongyang to stop helping Moscow and withdraw its troops.